One day after reports emerged that billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel helped fund Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker, the media company asked a Florida judge if it can investigate the matter.

According to reports, Thiel, who sits on the board of Facebook and help co-found PayPal, bankrolled the former pro-wrestler's lawsuit against Gawker. The suit was filed after the company published excerpts of Hogan's leaked sex tape.

A Florida jury awarded Hogan $140 million in damages after a three-week trial.

On Tuesday, Gawker founder Nick Denton said he was suspicious that a Silicon Valley benefactor was funding a number of lawsuits against the company, including Hogan’s.

"In the last 24 hours, news reports have come out about a Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel," Gawker's lawyer Seth Berlin said in a hearing Wednesday, according to a number of reporters in the courtroom. "We believe this potentially relates to our efforts to get relief. We would like a limited amount of leave to get to the bottom of it."

Judge Pamela Campbell refused to look at the news reports, and said she will not rule until Gawker files a motion.

"I don’t like looking at all the stuff that’s published out there," she said. "It’s not healthy."

Wednesday's hearing was scheduled to address Gawker's motion for a new trial, which Campbell denied. She also refused to reduce the amount of damages.

"We look forward to the legal process continuing and expect to be vindicated," Gawker said in a statement.

"Just days after Gawker Media’s site Gizmodo exposed that Facebook’s news section has suppressed certain points of view, we’ve now learned that a Facebook board member and a major funder of The Committee to Protect Journalists has been secretly funding a legal campaign against our journalists," the statement added. "There are very serious questions about whether Hulk Hogan financially benefitted and this case is far from over."

Mary Ann Georgantopoulos is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.